PIERS ROPER
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Full Name: |
Piers Roper |
Nationality: |
British |
Organization: |
None |
Occupation |
Industrial Spy |
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Creator: |
Ken Follett
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Time Span: |
1975 - 1976 |
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ABOUT THE SERIES
Piers Roper is an industrial spy.
Like the more "traditional" member of the cloak and dagger business, it is the job of the industrial spy to gather information about the "enemy" that will either help the "good guys" with a leg up on the competition or will, if disseminated properly, do harm to that "enemy". For the industrial spy, however, the words in quotes are especially important because there are no good guys or bad guys. There are just competitors.
Roper is a particularly proficient spy. He has an uncanny ability to learn enough about an industry and more importantly its needs, present himself as the man able to fill that need, and then insinuate himself inside the work climate, providing value for his salary, all the while learning all the good secrets an insider could know and an outsider shouldn't.
But it takes a person able to be viciously ruthless to be a good industrial spy. To glean the information he is paid to procure, he has to befriend a varied group of "co-workers", becoming one of the them, all the while betraying the confidences he has earned.
Back in the traditional spy world, such a person is called a mole and that term is always used in a very demeaning manner. Moles are despicable, totally untrustworthy individuals. Roper is one without a doubt and he is very good at it.
Roper is probably in his late 30s and has an impressive resume and most of the places mentioned in that record of his professional accomplishments are the victims of his spying. He really works, freelance style, for a man named Palmer. Palmer gets paid extremely well for the intelligence he and his people gather and he passes a good deal of that on to those doing the work. Roper makes a ton of money at his schenanigans as a result for his deal with Palmer is that he gets whatever the victim company pays him, which is substantial, and five times that from Palmer.
One of the reasons Roper seems to do so well in his chosen profession is his desire to remain free of entanglements. He has no close friends that we learn of. He has no romantic attachments, preferring the services of lovely call-girls when the urge hits him. He stays by himself in offices filled with people because it can be rather difficult to betray friends and betrayal is what Roper does for a living.
BOOKS
Number of Books: | 2 |
First Appearance: | 1975 |
Last Appearance: | 1976 |
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1 |
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The Shakeout
Written by Ken Follett
Copyright: 1975
Becoming a valued employee at a large corporation to undermine their work and steal their secrets is what Piers Roper does very well. He is hired by one auto maker to infiltrate a competitor and he is firmly in place to pull off his coup. An alluring woman, though, might be his undoing.
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2 |
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The Bear Raid
Written by Ken Follett
Copyright: 1976
Piers Roper is attacking Wall Street but he is using a young protege to do the heavy lifting while he looks into some shady actions by the Mob. This gets him wanted for murder and likely to take the fall for it, if he doesn't get killed first.
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